Spotlight
VideoVideo: Xbox One Backward Compatibility - How does it work?
Back to the Future.
FeatureEx-Rare devs talk Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark
Starfire Studios recounts Rare's heyday.
Playing the old Joanna.
Key events
21st March 2011
28th October 2010
11th March 2010
19th February 2010
VideoVideo: Xbox One Backward Compatibility - How does it work?
Back to the Future.
We won't be seeing the proper launch of backwards compatibility on the Xbox One until this Autumn, but you can play around with a handful of games right now, if you're an Xbox Preview Member. That's exactly what Ian Higton has been doing. How useful!
FeatureEx-Rare devs talk Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark
Starfire Studios recounts Rare's heyday.
It's a CV packed with best-selling games spread out across a decade: Killer Instinct, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Kameo… we're talking, of course, about Rare.
Why Kinect Sports is Rare's priority
And first-person shooters aren't.
Rare boss Scott Henson has explained why the Microsoft-owned UK developer is squarely focused on the Kinect Sports franchise and not hardcore genres such as first-person shooters.
Cancelled Perfect Dark Core: new details
How Joanna Dark might have looked.
The cancelled game that began as Perfect Dark 2 was to feature a very different Joanna Dark.
The image below, unearthed by unseen64.net, shows a more moody Dark than the one depicted in Perfect Dark and Perfect Dark Zero.
According to the site, Perfect Dark Core, what began as the true sequel to N64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark, featured a "more realistic atmosphere than its predecessors, with Joanna having a different and less feminine behaviour (smoking, flirting)".
Rare: We're not a Kinect exclusive dev
But Kinect the "centrepiece of our strategy".
Rare's next game is Kinect Sports and the studio is one of the motion-sensing add-on's most vocal supporters, but new boss Scott Henson has denied the famed UK company has become a Kinect-exclusive developer.
However, Kinect development is the "centrepiece" of Rare's strategy, Henson, who Microsoft has just announced as Rare's new studio manager, told Eurogamer.
"Kinect will be a key part of the studio's future," he said. "I'm not suggesting it's going to be exclusive, but it will be the centrepiece of our strategy for sure, because there is a lot of opportunity there."
Perfect Dark has Crackdown 2 treat
Gives Agent 4 when saved file found.
Rare has revealed that Xbox Live Arcade game Perfect Dark will work with Crackdown 2.
Playing the old Joanna.
Of all the things I wasn't expecting to stumble across in the XBLA remake of Perfect Dark, Peter Molyneux was quite high on the list. But there he is, the founder of Lionhead, a key creative force behind Populous, Theme Park, and the Syndicate series, waiting patiently in a dataDyne elevator so that Joanna can pop out from a nearby grating and kick him in the head.
Some people, it seems, are still a bit cut up about the fact that you couldn't grow entire trees from acorns in the first Fable.
Odd as it is to come up across a legend of British game development while playing through a first-person shooter - it's even weirder when he turns up in multiplayer, decked out in a white tux, and wielding a sub-machine gun - it's totally in-keeping with Perfect Dark's peculiar culture.
Perfect Dark XBLA a week earlier.
Microsoft plans to release Game Room for Xbox Live and Games for Windows - Live on 24th March. It will be free, but game cabinets and game-plays will cost, as previously reported.
Perfect Dark and Scrap Metal out then too.
Microsoft has said Perfect Dark, Scrap Metal and the new Game Room feature will launch on Xbox Live in March.
Perfect Dark XBLA showing at X10
Hands-on at press event next week.
Rare has announced that Perfect Dark for Xbox Live Arcade will be shown off at a Microsoft press event next week.
Perfect Dark XBLA comparison shots
Rare works its magic on the N64 classic.
Rare works its magic on the N64 classic.
E3: Perfect Dark N64 for Xbox Live
This winter, says Major Nelson.
Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has announced that the original Perfect Dark will be released on Xbox Live Arcade this winter.
